FACTS FOR FARMERS. FRUIT PRESERVING.

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 114, 28 January 1873, Page 2

FACTS FOR FARMERS. FRUIT PRESERVING.

Tlt-VIV PRESERVED IN SUGAR. Peaches— Thu, the most common and not the least delicioU3 of our summer fruts, is, like the apricot, a native of Persia It is the Mains Peraica of tlic Romans, and according to Columeha, when first brought from Persia mt/i^^e It jman Empire, it possessed deleterious qualities. No doubt they were imperfect peaches which are known to contain pmssic acid. It is now, however, a dessert fruit of the first order, and makes a most delicious preserve In Maryland, Virginia, a species of brandy is made from this fruit. The leaves ot the peach, steeped in gin or whiakj , communicate a flavour resembling that of notcau. In 1573, Tusser, the father of .British husbandry, mentions peaches, wito and red ; in 1029 Parkinson enumerated twenty-one ; and Miller, in 1750, thirty-one varieties ; but in the gardens of the Luxembourg, at Paris, no less than seventy-one varieties were at one time growing. The pulp of the peach should not be very firm ; the skin should be line ami yellow, without anygieen spots; the fiuit should melt in the mouth, and its juice muat be sweet, and should have a taste of wine, and even of musk, a slight down on the skin, and a srn.ill stone. Peaches xoit. — Take some five ripe peaches, prick them with a large needle; throw them into cold water, and put them on the fire in the sime water to blanch them ; when you feel them soft take them out and put them again into cold water : when cold, diam them and arrange them in an earthen pan ; then cover them with syrup, which must q bo boiled to the little thread. The next day drain off the " syrup, boil it a degree more, skimming it carefully, and add a httle more fresh syiup if required; the third aepeat the Bame process ; on the fourth day drain them, and boil the syrup to the large pearl ; put in your peaches, u 1 boil the syrup over them once ; skim them well, and vi them in dry pans for use.

OX PRESERVING TRVXt WITHOUT SUGAR. It lias long been a desideratum to preserve fruits by some cheap method by which they could bo used for culinary purposes, such as for tarts and pies, the exponsn of preserving with sugar being a serious objection. Besides, sugar overpowers and destroys the sub-acid taste which it is so desirable to retain. There are many very simple methods of pre- . •erving fruit and vegetables for a considerable length of timc.^ For instance, green gooseberries, currants, or even green peas may be easily preserved if gathered in dry weather, taking care that there are no bruised ones amoDgst them. Drop them gently into dry wide-mouthed bottles. Cork the bottles and resin over the corks. Make a trench in the garden, at least two feet deep, and bury the bottle 9 in it, placing the corks downward, and if they are plunged for a few minutes in very hot water, fruit will tcep better ; but they may bo kept twelve months by this plan. Grapes w ill keep well in sawdust if the lids of the jars are cemented down to keep out the air.

ruriTS is dhaxdt. Most fruits may be preserved in brandy, but cliemei, peaches, apricots, greengages, and pears, are generally used for this purpose. It is indispensable that the brandy used i should be of the best quality. We shall only give one formula, that of peaches, as the other fruits are preserved in * similar manner. Peaches in Brandy. — Choose the peaches you mean to preserve a little before they are ripe, take off the down by wiping them -with a cloth ; prick them with a small fork to the stono and put them as you d"o them into water, nearly boiling ; when you find your fruit softenod, so as to give way to the finger,* throw thorn into cold water and leave them to itand fjr a quarter of an hour ; change this water for another, and let them stand another quarter of an hour ; drain them on clean towels, and, when dry, arrange thent regularly in a glass jar ; have some clarified sugar bc-iled to the little pearl, one-third syrup to two-thivds fruit will be sufficient, put to them double the quantity of brandy 30 0.p., mix and strain it through a flannel bag two or three times, place the peache* regularly in your glass jars, pour on the mixture, cover with bladders well tied down.

SADDINGTON's PROCESS FOB FBVIT PKEBEETINO. There are very simple methods for preserving fruiti, but they will not answer the purpose for preserving for export such fruits as are plentiful in this colony — as peaches, plums apricots, ifec. Another and more complicated process must be adopted. The best method of preserving fruits in bottle* without sugar is the one termed Saddington'e process. In 1810 the Sotietj of arts gave him a premium for communicating the following process for preserving fruit without sugor . — Fill some stone wide-mouthed bottles with the fruit picked carefully, and set them in a copper or large bottle, then fill tho kettle with cold water, nenrly up to the mouths of the bottles. Corks should be prepared to fit the bottles, and a cloth should be put under the bottom of the bottles to present their breaking with the heat. Light the fire under the kettle, and heat the water to 160 ° or \IO ° F. Ibis heat should be continued for nbout half an hour, when the fruit will be sufficiently scalded. After that fill up tho bottles with boding water to within an inch of the cork, and cork them tight. The bottles should now be laid on theu* sides where they are to be kept. During the first month or two it will be necessary to turn the bottles round once or twico a week, and occasionally afterwards, to prevent the fermentation that will take place with eomc fruits from forming into a mouldy crust. Fruit preserved in this manner ■Bill keep at sen, even in hot chmntes. Tho fruits that may be preserved in this way are apricoh, gooseberries, currants, raspberneb, cherries, plums (Orlean, egg, or damson), greengages, and also rhubarb cut into small pieces. But the most juicy fruits, such as currants, mulberriw, strawberries, raspberries, arc not so well calculated for this purpose. In this process the heat seems to act by coagulating and rendering inactive a kind of gluten, which is a principal agent in the commencement of fermentation. In the old process we were directed not to cork or tie up the vessels till they were quite cool, by which it now appears a very great advantage- w as lost. The principle of this process was the coagulation of the vegetable albumen by scalding, and it would be quite practicable to carry out the system m this colony. It is simple and expeditious, and the only dillicultj appears to be in procuring the bottles, and also in their being more Imblo to be broken than the tin canisters. Still, if propci ly packed, there would be no reason why our peaches could not be sent to Europe, as well as Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell and other preservers are able to se»d the English fruits here. Many tons of fruit are allowed to rot yearly, yet we import very largely of preserved fruits from England. Surely it would be worth while for some firm or company to tako tho matter iv hand.

The Daily News asserts that that "• gentility" to which Lord Salisbury casually alluded in his admirable speech afc Manchester the other day works far more mischief in English society than any combination of strikes or rise of food to famine prices. If we could get aay trustworthy statistics on such a subject,- we should learn how many thousands of families are there m London who are endeavouring to keep up a state altogether out of proportion to their means, and who nre from timo to time plunged into the deepest distress by aomo- unexpected call on their confined resources. Tins disastrous pretentiousness docs not stop here. It prevails in other regions. Tho son of the workman must be a shopkeeper ; the son of the shopkeeper must be a merchant's clerk ; the son of the merchant's clerk must be educated for the law, or medicine-, or the Church ; and they must id the meantime assume the social position and expenditure necessary to the character, and mewr the most severe privations for the saVo of a weak and foolish pretence. No one, of course, can desire to check the ambition of ardent youth. But the impulse which drives peoplo into efforts to distinguish themselves or better their circumstances is vastly different from that petty hypocrisy w hick loves to " keep up appearances," and ape a style of living altogether beyond its moans. That is one of the great curses of our tune; and it is hard to see how it i» to be remedied, except by a growing spirit of good senso and honesty on the part of our ( iopulation generally. The example of noblemen sending their son* into commerce is all very good in its way; but it cannot be expected to affect the conduct of men who consider a clerkship and eighty pounds a year as more "genteel" than a carpentcr'9 bench and threo pounds a week ; ox of women who, administering an income of two handrod a year, would think themselves degraded if they assisted m the cooking and studied the small economies of the kitchen. If we had a little less " gentility" and a trifle more thrifty, prudent, and plain ordering of limited means, our social life in England would bo a good deal more comfortable and praiseworthy than it is. For the amusement of our readers wo copy the following, which appeared recently in tho Echo: — To hare one's hair frizzed to the sound of soft music is a pleasure reserved for the ladies who frequent the splendid talon* of a new etablissement de coiffure in Paris. Far away be the days when the " liarber of Seville," or of ftny other city, was a person to bo treated w ith gentlo irony. Ilair-cuttmg m Paris has mounted beyond the regions of an art, it has almost becoino a science. Its votaries assemble in vast and magnificent rooms, to which they arc introduced by laequays in rich liveries, and w hero they are attended by the most " distinguished artists " with ' irreproachable- tome" — able to speak all the languages of Europe. While- the gentle operation of the tonsure, the brushing, and the pcriuimng are m process, a mysterious music is heard pervading tho- apartment?. Gentlemen's boards are- softly shaved by raaors of " velvet electricity "—" — the next thing of course, to " buttered lightning" — with tho aid of soap, whith 11, in truth, the honey ot Arabia, dissohedin tho dewdrops of dawn. Ladies, moanwhilc, have their locks frizzed as by an ./Italian breeze — winch mny bo cither "stormy "or "calm, 1 ' as suits their temperament and sUlo of headdrcßs. Surely we nre 111 a world of exquisitejun«*ltirsr Only one thing in the programme recalls thebarbarous days of old. Tho ladici are proruit-ed not only " delicate attentions" from their attendants, but also " thfr most &ptrdtulle conversation."